


respice finem

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst and Feels, Chapter 14, Friendship, Gen, Goodbyes, I mean you know what happens, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 19:52:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10498305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: Noctis says goodbye to the three people he loves most.[rewrite of the corresponding scene]





	

“Take care… Majesty.”

Ignis bows his head to him, and, any other day, Noctis would have laughed and said he needn’t have. But today is different. Noctis knows where he was going. The rest of them know it, too.

So Noctis smiles gently, and nods, and takes in Ignis’s face. They had been through so much together, him and Ignis. Him and all three of his bodyguards– his best friends. His brothers. But Ignis had always gone the extra mile to take care of him, playfully– but seriously– falling into the role of ‘mother’ and never giving it up. Even after he had gone blind, he had never given that up. Not entirely.

“Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do,” Ignis adds.

It is patently stupid; they have all seen what he would do. The evidence is the long, jagged scar on his face. Or the stick commonly in hand, or fingers latched into the crook of an arm. They have all seen.

All of this for him. All of this for him.

It tastes like ash in his mouth. He is grateful, but it leaves a taste on his tongue that he cannot shake. They have done so much for him, and he’s…

Noctis reaches up and takes Ignis’s face in his hands. It feels like instinct, natural, as he has to stretch to press his lips, so softly, against that jagged scar. “… Thank you.” He hears Ignis’s breath catch in his throat, knows that will be the only display of emotion he allows himself. And when Noctis pulls away, Ignis is as collected as he expects.

“Always… Noctis.”

No… he isn’t entirely collected. His voice is strained now. There is infinite pain on his face. It is written all over, that pain– no, that _anguish_. But there are no tears. Not now. And not ever in front of him again, Noctis suspects.

Noctis hopes they look after him. Ignis has never been one to grieve openly.

Next he goes to Prompto, and pretends he doesn’t see the horror there, too. It is less concealed and Noctis knows, if he stuck around long enough, he _would_ see Prompto in tears. He could never handle it before. He cannot handle it now.

He steps forward and slings an arm around his shoulders, then pulls him in the rest of the way. He isn’t certain he can convey any of his emotions, at the moment, in words, and with Prompto, his first friend outside of Ignis or Gladio, he doesn’t have them. So, he tries to say everything with touch. He turns his head and kisses at Prompto’s jaw, again so softly that he might not have felt it, but he does. His whole body stiffens, and then the air is further crushed out of Noctis as Prompto holds on tighter.

Prompto had told him– or tried to– the day he had tried to confess to Cindy.

_“Noct… buddy, I, uh… I’ve got something else to… confess to… about me. I, um, l–”_

_“I know,”_ Noctis had interrupted, and he had. He had been clueless, for the longest time, but with a little closer inspection and Gladio and Ignis, the pining had become clear. So, he had said _I know_ and watched Prompto’s face light up, as he asked if he minded or if it bothered him, and Noctis had told him _“no. Nothing about you could bother me, Prompt”_.

It hadn’t been a declaration of his own, it hadn’t been reciprocation, but it had been… acceptance. Turns out that was worth more to Prompto than any of them could have guessed.

“I’m sorry,” he says now, in the blonde’s ear, only for him.

Prompto’s laugh trembles; he noses against Noctis’s hair for a second and presses their foreheads together. “Don’t ever be that,” he says. “You don’t have _one reason_ to be.”

It’s a lie, even outside the realm of what Noctis is referring to, but it is a nice sentiment.

Prompto’s grip lingers as Noctis pulls away, but there is Gladiolus, waiting. Silent, stoic, strong. Things Noctis had always appreciated, when he was younger. He still does.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“… You gonna kiss me, too?”

The tone is so familiarly cocky that Noctis finds himself responding in kind before he can stop himself. “ _Hell_ no.”

All four of them laugh. It feels foreign, like one last fleeting illusion in the face of Death, but it _feels_. The numbness threatening to settle into his veins– numbness, and sadness– dissipates for one, small moment.

Then he has to move on, and as he’s debating how to approach this particular goodbye, Gladio sticks out his hand in a determined gesture and says

“Do us proud, Your Majesty.”

Noctis marvels at his hand for a moment– strong, bruised, calloused, scarred– and takes it. “I will.”

He meets Gladio’s gaze, and tries to convey the things that they _don’t_ say just then. _Watch over them. Protect them. Protect yourself._ They have never been much for words, him and Gladiolus. He isn’t sure if Gladio understands, but then he nods, ever so slightly, and Noctis can let go of his hand with a weight lifted off of his heart.

He knows it won’t be that easy, but it helps to know someone else will be looking out for them when he can’t.

He is about to turn away when a hand catches his shoulder; he is jerked to Gladio’s chest in a bone crushing hug and then released before he can react. Gladio says nothing.

Noctis nods anyway. He knows. He knows.

Now he has said goodbye, in the only way he will say it. He takes one last look at them, tries to memorise their faces and voices because he wants to take that to his grave. This is his family. If he has to die, he wants to die thinking of the people that love him, and the people he loves most. The photo that Prompto had just given him won’t ever match up, so he tries to drink them in now, as they are, and remember their time together fondly.

And then he draws himself out of his reverie, out of wishful thinking, and says “See you on the other side”. If he stays any longer, he might be the one to turn emotional, and they cannot have that out of their King.

So Noctis turns and faces what will inevitably be his destiny, and hopes that the world will be better for this. He hopes that his kingdom will forgive him, and he hopes that his friends… he wishes them only a happy life. He can do no more, now.

He starts walking, and he does not look back. No matter how much he wants to.

**Author's Note:**

>  _respice finem_ = look to the end
> 
> So I went and wrote a bunch of fanfic before I even finished the game, like, 'oh Noct you're gonna die' and bam, this happened. I went back to edit a bit in from the actual end game, but yeah. I really wanted a hug. I mean I wanted them to hug. But I would have taken a hug too, after all of this xD
> 
> I do not own _Final Fantasy XV_. Thanks for the read!


End file.
